The World Policy Conference

Setting the world to rights—at least in theory

CASSANDRA has just been taking part in the World Policy Conference in Vienna—a meeting where the great and good, from the presidents of Turkey and Estonia to the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, swap speeches and ideas on the state of the world and how to improve it.

Inevitably, today's reality tended to cast its shadow on tomorrow's possibilities. For instance, was the euro crisis (the conference was taking place just as the EU summit in Brussels was ending) really being resolved? The tendency was to think it was, though that, of course, may have been wishful thinking by politicians who always like to think they can defeat the markets.

If the euro was one topic of conversation, so too was the Arab spring—renamed by many participants as “the Arab awakening”. The general view (prompted by frequent references to 19th century Europe) was that it will be several years before a revolutionary process in the Arab world, and probably in Iran, too, reaches a settled conclusion. What would the role of Islam be? President Abdullah Gul of Turkey, careful not to preach to others, was happy to cite his nation's ability to combine Islam with democracy; Amr Moussa, the former secretary-general of the Arab League and now a presidential candidate in Egypt, professed optimism for moderation in the Arab world's most populous country, despite the recent electoral dominance not just of the Muslim Brotherhood but also of the fundamentalist Salafists.

What struck Cassandra, however, was a prediction (albeit not on the same day and face-to-face) shared by Prince Turki Al-Faisal, the former boss of the Saudi intelligence agency and Saudi Arabia's former ambassador to Washington, and Ehud Barak, Israel's defence minister and former prime minister. Both men think the regime in Syria of Bashar al-Assad is doomed. Intriguingly (not least for this particular Cassandra, who used to live in civil-war torn Beirut), neither man seemed too concerned by the potential for a descent into sectarian warfare in both Syria and neighbouring Lebanon. As Barak said more than once, “We live in a dangerous neighbourhood.”

True enough, and one danger underlined by both Turki and Barak was Iran's quest for nuclear arms. Just how to stop that quest is another matter (Barak refused to be drawn on any Israeli military intention), but the Saudi prince had a nice description of Iran as “a paper tiger with steel claws”, the claws being Iranian-supported movements such as Hizbullah…

Spring of spiders?
Spring: The fields are covered by thousands blooming flowers.
Life is celebrating everywhere.
!!!
However- if the fields are covered by thorns, flowers are not blooming and the spiders are flourishing.
!!!!
The Arabs unrest results in Islamist parties taking power.
Islamists parties agenda don’t include the points against the Islamist ideology standing for :*1-one religion ISLAM*2-one government KALIFAT*3-one law-SHARIA*4:imposed worldwide by an endless WAR.
The western politicians' and media prisoners in their definition of revolution and democraticy refuse to listen what is being said in Arabic and not English.
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Is the free world the spider (Islamists) pray ?
Will the free world turn to be the spider(Islamist) prey?
Time will tell.
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Remember: The Nazi get power by democratic elections.
Lesson: Understand a ideology before supporting their power takeover.
The price played later to stand against the implementation of such ideologies is beyond imagination.
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USA helped the Taliban to defeat the Soviets in Afghanistan without taking seriously their Islamic Jihad ideology.
The world harvests the terror seeds on daily basis.
Pls remember to enquire Islamist stand for the followings published and said often in Arabic however rarely in English.
"1:""**** JIHAD AGAINST NON-MUSLIMS IS OBLIGATORY***
Muslim can come closer to Allah by waging jihad against all non-Muslims,Christians,Jews, atheists,or polytheists in every possible manner.
Total rejection of non-Muslims and of the Muslims who have strayed from the path of Islam""
Muslim brotherhood ideology pillar:
By Dr Ahmad ‘Abd Al-Khaleq in about Al-Walaa Wa'l-Bara.
Refer to Muslim Brotherhood Website- Oct 17 2008

2:Muslim Brotherhood rally in Cairo's most prominent mosque 2011 Nov 25 attendants vowing time and again, a Koran quote vowing that
***** "one day we shall kill all the Jews"*****
Ref:http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4153207,00.html

3:Muslim brotherhood leader speech in Cairo before 1 million people
****"Hitler didn’t finish the job- The Muslims will finish the Job""****
( Refer to BBS program "Third eye Egypt")